Oakland Raiders Offensive Woes Proving Age-Old Adage Correct

The Oakland Raiders are not having anywhere close to the offensive showing most thought they would this season, and in the process have proven an age-old adage correct.

Coming into the season, the Oakland Raiders were generally believed to have an offense competing at the highest levels. An offense capable of challenging the league’s elite. And an offense that was supposed to rack up the yards and points by the boatload.

At the time, it seemed like a fair belief to hold. After all, this was an offense that ranked sixth overall in yardage and seventh overall in points last season. This is a team that has ascending stars in quarterback Derek Carr and Amari Cooper, solid veterans like Michael Crabtree and Lee Smith, and an offensive line that was one of the best in the league last year.

And then they added to that embarrassment of riches this offseason by adding the likes of Marshawn Lynch, Cordarrelle Patterson, and Jared Cook.

This was supposed to be an offense loaded for bear that was going to light up the NFL. Yet, here we are, halfway through the season, and we’re still waiting for that offense to arrive.

Having played half of their schedule already – the half most considered the “easy” part of their sixteen-game slate – Oakland’s offense is barely a shadow of what it was last year.

What the Raiders’ offensive woes show us, is all of McKenzie’s offseason tinkering did just one thing – prove an age-old adage correct. And that adage is, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Through eight games, Oakland’s offense has fallen – or rather, it has plummeted faster than a block of lead thrown out of an airplane at 30,000 feet – all the way down to twentieth in the league in yardage and in points scored.

And this, after adding new weapons for Carr to work with.

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Many point to the installation of Todd Downing as the team’s new Offensive Coordinator as the reason for the team’s sharp decline in offensive efficiency and punch. And Downing’s play calling has certainly been suspect and is absolutely a big reason.

But, remember, at the time, with former OC Bill Musgrave‘s contract expiring and the offense seeming to have reached a bit of a plateau, coupled with Downing’s name suddenly surfacing as something of a hot commodity in OC circles, and it’s hard to fault McKenzie and HC Jack Del Rio for wanting to retain him.

With Del Rio wanting this Oakland offense to ascend, and with Musgrave’s play calling under fire from most directions, it made sense to bring in what many thought of as an innovative offensive mind to help Carr and company take the next step in their evolution.

Except, to this point in the season, Downing looks a lot like Jason Tarver did when he was installed as Oakland’s DC under the Dennis Allen regime – underqualified, overmatched, and way out of his depth.

But what about the shiny new toys McKenzie brought in to pump up this offense?

Their impact has been – negligible.

Patterson was brought in to give an explosive element to Oakland’s kick return game – as well as add another dimension to the offense. As far as the kick return game goes though, Patterson is averaging a few more yards per return over Jalen Richard did last season (Patterson is averaging 30.9 yards per return this year, while Richard averaged 23.6 yard per return in 2016). But, Patterson’s longest return (49 yards) is still one yard short of Richard’s longest return last season (50), and he’s not logged a single touchdown in the return game.

The seven extra yards give Oakland slightly better field position to start a drive, but it means nothing if the offense can’t do anything with it. And to date, the offense has yet to be able to do a whole lot with those seven extra yards.

In the run game, Patterson has provided a nice little component for gadget plays as he’s accounted for 124 yards on 10 carries and a pair of touchdowns. He’s also contributed 69 receiving yards on 14 receptions – a woeful average of just 4.9 yards per reception.

Patterson has provided a brief spark from time to time, but his impact on this offense and on special teams has been entirely negligible.

And how about Jared Cook?

Next: Raiders Midseason Offensive Report Card

Glad you asked. Through eight games, Cook has had some nice moments, but he’s also had some downright terrible moments that have hurt the team. But, he’s currently third on the team with 373 receiving yards on 31 catches, with just one single touchdown. One.

Cook’s value to this offense was primarily supposed to be down in the red zone. The thinking was that Carr needed a big body down there to muscle up in the endzone and Cook could provide that for him. And yet, through eight games, Cook has gotten all of four red zone targets. Four.

Down in the red zone, Cook has caught one pass – on his whopping four targets – and it was good for six yards. And he has zero touchdowns in the red zone. Of course, it’s hard to score in the red zone when balls aren’t coming your way, so there is that.

For everything Cook has done for this offense and how he’s been used – or rather, how he’s not been used – McKenzie would have been better off saving the money he spent to bring him in, have the coaching staff actually develop Clive Walford, and use the savings on an area this team really needed to have addressed this offseason – the defense.

And while it’s not entirely his fault – he can only do what he can do when his number is called – Cook hasn’t elevated this offense in any way, shape, or form. For all of the impact Cook has had, he is what many of us thought he’d be when he signed with the team – an older, more expensive version of Walford.

And then there’s Marshawn Lynch.

Lynch wasn’t brought in to be a 1,000 yard rusher. And he wasn’t brought in to be the team’s bellcow back. But, he was brought in to help form a potent enough ground attack that it would keep defenses honest and help open up the passing game.

Between Lynch, Richard, and DeAndre Washington, it was believed that the Raiders might actually have a better ground attack than the 2016 backfield who ranked sixth in the NFL.

Not only has Oakland’s ground attack not lived up to last year’s sixth-best run game, they’ve taken such a large step backward, that they’ve completely fallen off a cliff.

Through eight games, Oakland is fielding the league’s twenty-sixth ranked rushing attack. Twenty-sixth!

To fall twenty spots like that, something had to have gone horribly, horribly wrong. But, this team is fielding the same offensive line that helped propel a ground game led by Latavius Murray to one of the top spots in the league.

So, what’s happened to Oakland’s vaunted running game? The short answer to that question is – Todd Downing.

Last year, Oakland was eleventh in the league in rushing attempts with 434. That’s roughly 27 rushing attempts per game. This season? Well, this season Oakland ranks thirty-second in the league in rushing attempts.

That’s thirty-second out of thirty-two teams, in case you’re scoring at home.

Oakland’s yards per carry this year is basically the same as last year (4.2 ypc this year vs. 4.4 ypc in 2016). The difference is that unlike last season, the Raiders are averaging just 20 rushing attempts per game. 20.

If you’re breaking that down, Lynch is averaging just about 10 carries per game. Richard is averaging five, and Washington is averaging just under four touches per game.

To say that Downing has completely neglected Oakland’s ground game – and possibly doesn’t understand the impact it has on the offense as a whole – would be a vast understatement.

Without at least the threat of a potent ground game, opposing defenses can sit on the receivers, make plays, stifle the passing game, and force turnovers. To wit, Carr has already thrown as many interceptions through eight games this season as he did in all of 2016.

Without a viable rushing attack, it takes away an incredibly valuable tool in the play-action pass and limits what the passing game can do as a whole.

In short, by undervaluing and neglecting Oakland’s rushing game, Downing is single-handedly sinking the offense as a whole.

If the Raiders are going to turn their season around and have an inspired run through the second half of the season, Downing is going to have to get his act together and start using all the tools at his disposal. He’s going to have to be the offensive wunderkind Del Rio believed him to be when he let Musgrave walk and promoted him.

Coming off their first winning season and playoff berth in well over a decade, the Raiders were understandably excited as an organization. And they were more than eager to continue building on that momentum and success. But rather than address the glaring needs on the roster, McKenzie went out and addressed problems the team didn’t actually have.

Oakland’s offense wasn’t broke when the 2016 ended. But, it certainly is now. And they’ve got eight games to figure it out and actually fix a problem of their own creation. Otherwise, it’s going to be a long offseason of disappointment and recrimination.

And haven’t we seen enough of those since 2002?